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Topic: Make my own 600-RT gels or wait? (Read 4379 times)

I've been waiting to learn gelling (is that a word?) until a sane gel solution came out, and I've been waiting for an in Flash Canon RF solution. Thankfully the 600-RT gives me both which is why I popped for three the day they released. Now I want to expand this wonderful gel system. The manual indicates that a 3x3 3rd party gel will work fine, but for some reason the flash won't report it correctly so you have to set a C.fn to turn off gel notification (not sure if this is a problem with a pre-2012 body).

Anyhow, should I roll my own gels or wait for somebody to come out with a 600-RT gel kit? If roll my own, any suggestions for a kit to buy? I'd like the CTB's, CTO's, Green, and a handful of Cines maybe. Would rather buy a pre done kit but I don't want to wait too long!

jm345

The 600RT has a "gel sensor." The flexible Canon gels fold under in the holder so that they cover the sensor and can be detected by it. Wouldn't that work for third party gels that can be mounted the same way? Are you saying the manual says it can only detect the two gels that come with the flash? That doesn't seem right but I don't have my manual with me right now to check.

After using the gel that came with my 600, I wasn't so impressed. It doesn't fit the holder all that well, was difficult to keep in place while attaching and it's incredibly flimsy -- don't see it lasting very long at all. I'll probably just cut up the gels I have now to fit inside the holder. Changing the white balance manually to accommodate is hardly even worth mentioning. The auto sensing thing didn't even work consistently with my 5D3 anyway.

After using the gel that came with my 600, I wasn't so impressed. It doesn't fit the holder all that well, was difficult to keep in place while attaching and it's incredibly flimsy -- don't see it lasting very long at all. I'll probably just cut up the gels I have now to fit inside the holder. Changing the white balance manually to accommodate is hardly even worth mentioning. The auto sensing thing didn't even work consistently with my 5D3 anyway.

The way to put it in is to slide in from the bottom, the two upper corners tuck into the slots, then the bottom tab slips into the two fingers on the bottom. If you practice a little I've found it to be the quickest way to get a gel on the flash, additionally - at least while in the holder - the gels are much more protected then any other system.

They do use a thin gel material, a thick isn't necessary with their system and is probably easier to insert. Thinner might translate to better light transmission too.

I came here to post the same question as the OP, so thought I'd bump and see if anything has changed in the past 5 months and maybe there are some 3rd party filters available now?

Failing that I can cut my own but does anyone have ideas on a fluorescent correction filter kit and a place to buy one that ships internationally? Just looking at a few places locally (Australia) they only seem to stock the 'artistic' filters.